The Moritat
Home World: Feral World, Imperial World or Hive World. Cost: 300 xp The Moritat is an Imperial Death Cult, far older than Calixis itself. Some legends say it was brought to Calixis by adherents secreted among the forces of the Angevin Crusade who carved the sector into being. Others claim it was already seeded in place, waiting for the Imperials when they came. Regardless, the Moritat leans heavily on the Imperial Creed, albeit with a very bloody and mystical interpretation of its dogma. It teaches that only through the merciless application of violence and death can the Imperium be sustained, the weak and corrupt winnowed out and the Emperor’s own great sacrifice honoured. In organisation, the Moritat is supremely difficult to infiltrate or pin down, operating in independent cells each led by a single master or mistress seeded in recruiting grounds such as underhives, feral world wildernesses and war zones. The Moritat selects those who have already been “marked” by tragedy and bloodshed to serve the Emperor as a bringer of death to His enemies. They take these individuals from a young age and forge their bitterness and hate into a weapon. Training recruits relentlessly in the arts of destruction, deception and bloodletting, while at the same time indoctrinating them into their own brand of Imperial faith and the mysteries of the cult. Moritat aspirants who survive this education become full members of the cult and are sent out alone into the wider Imperium—a process they call the “travail” to hone their skills as assassins, vigilantes and peerless duellists, believing that only through continuous conflict and bloody experience can they become supreme in their arts and worthy to serve the Emperor. The existence of the Moritat is something of an open secret in the hierarchy of the Calixian noble houses and the Adepta, although facts about them are scarce in the extreme. The cult’s existence also seems to benefit from some measure of toleration by the Imperium’s higher powers, a fact that leads some to whisper that the Moritat’s true sponsorship lies with the distant and dreaded temples of the Officio Assasinorum itself. For a Moritat Assassin, the chance to serve the Inquisition is a blessed thing—dealing death to the God-Emperor’s enemies first hand and also a proving ground where they can Test their skills against the most dire and powerful opposition imaginable. Many Inquisitors regard Moritat Assassins as invaluable resources, monsters of their own to fight the many monsters they must challenge. Effects Apply all of the following changes to your character: Characteristics: Reduce Fellowship by –5. Skills: You begin the game with Climb (S), Secret Tongue (Moritat) (Int), Shadowing (Ag), and Silent Move (Ag). Talents: You gain the Jaded talent. Insanity Points: You start the game with 1d5 Insanity Points. Equipment: Replace your normal starting equipment with the following: mono-sword, six throwing knives, crossbow pistol and twenty bolts, grapnel and line, equipment harness, 3 doses of stimm, and a protective bodyglove (2 points Primitive armour to the Body, Arms and Legs). The Bloody Edge (Trait): the Moritat disdain many modern weapons as crude and spiritually unfulfilling, preferring instead the sacred edge of the blade. As a result, they must pass a Hard (–20) Willpower Test to use any weapon lacking an “edge” in combat (thrown blades, knives and arrows are fine) unless they obviously have no chance of harming their enemy otherwise. However, such is their deadly artistry at bloodletting, any edged weapon wielded by them counts as having the Tearing quality when used against living targets.